FishProfiles.com Message Forums

My bumble bee gobies now have a proper tank instead of being crammed into a 10g. I set up a 29g in it's place with ~40lbs of limestone, 3 pieces of driftwood, and 1" of sand. Planted so far with plenty of java fern, wendtii crypts, and anubias. Not sure if the crypts and anubias will survive my target sg of 1.012 but I have tons of cuttings of both so might as well try it. I also want to add either crinums or vals but I don't know what would survive better. I found some sites that said vals only survive very light brackish at 1.008 or less and other sites that said they are regularly found in up to 1.015. Anyone tried it?

Also in with the gobies are 2 female feeder guppies and a ghost shrimp that have acclimated up to an sg of 1.008 without issue. If they continue to remain healthy and active I'm going to add a male guppy and more ghost shrimp to provide live food for the gobies. They are eating more frozen but still aren't too excited about it. I'm feeding them pods from the saltwater tank nearly every other day. From the original 13 sickly gobies there were 11 survivors when I moved them earlier today. Pictures when the computer agrees to connect to either of the digital cameras again....

That sounds nice, I really liked my bees. I eventually had sucess with frozen blood worms, and found a lfs nearby that sold brine shrimp.

Looking forward to seeing pics

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Here's my brackish tank so far:


http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v244/aqh88/fish/brackish%20tank/

I wasn't sure I got the limestone stacked high enough but they've been swimming across the entire tank. Sometimes to within a few inches of the surface. I also wasn't sure if the powerhead would be too strong but they actually seem to enjoy darting right into it and letting it blow them part way across the tank. With the large quick filter attachment for an intake the powerhead doesn't pull strongly at any one spot despite moving around 200gph of water.



They love the algae coated driftwood and keep picking something out of the algae so I decided to leave it as is provided it doesn't start dying in the higher salt and doesn't spread everywhere. I want to plant the space behind the rocks on the right with tall plants and I have several dozen more baby java ferns growing in my 55g that I'm going to place on the rocks.

Tank looks great Sham.

I'm glad to hear that most of them survived. The limestone is great especially as they have lots of little holes in them. Makes nice caves for busy bees to explore and breed in.

I've never tried plants in my tank but they look good, hope they work out ok. If yours do I might try some myself.

That's a great looking setup

How are the guppies doing? Have you thought about mollies in case the guppies don't do well in the brackish water?

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

The green crypt on the right is nearly dead. Could just be crypt melt. We'll see in a few days. The brown one seems to be doing fine and technically they are the same species just color varieties so I would think if one survives the other should.

The guppies still seem normal. 1 gave birth. I saw some fry peeking around a rock but a few minutes later so did the gobies and the biggest 6 have been extra fat the past few days. Looks like 1 guppy did manage to survive the first few days and is too big for the gobies to try to eat now. Unless all livebearer fry are the same size molly fry would probably be too big. I also didn't really want fish as big as mollies in the tank so I'm hoping the guppies work.

Hi Sham,
The tank looks really nice, and I especially like the
algae covered wood. I hope the light is strong enough
to encourage its growth.
The Molly fry are proportionally larger and probably will
not become bumble bee food.
Frank


-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

The tank has the same wpg of pc light as the driftwood was previously in. Only change is this one is deeper but I wouldn't think with tanks this size it would have a big enough impact.

I think the guppy fry pushed it's luck by swimming around in the open all day. I haven't seen it since last night. The gobies have started setting up territories. Nothing resulting in injuries but they get in arguments and shoving matches with each other. All around the lower caves there are perfect circles in the sand where the gobies(I believe all the males) have claimed their area and held little battles with the others. They've also decided to start eating glassworms and a mixed frozen food designed for marine tanks.

Well the driftwood algae went nuts. I guess it doesn't care about salt. I removed nearly all of it when it started looking more like a large hedge instead of just a layer of green on the wood. A clump also managed to spread onto the rocks. Maybe it will come back and behave itself when the tank is better established. The java fern and anubias are doing fine but wendtii crypts don't survive a sg over 1.008. Aside from a few slightly rotted chunks of root they are gone. I have a crinum thaianum, a piece of marsilea crenata, and some moss in a bucket that I'm slowly increasing the salinity. By the end of the week I'll put whatever survives into the tank and take some new pics. Unfortunately my xmas and willow moss grew together and I can't completely tell which is which. I think I cut off mostly willow moss.

Due to a heater accident I'm down one guppy. Temp went from 76F to 84F in less than 8hours. Surprisingly all 11 gobies are accounted for and the healthier guppy is doing fine and looking ready to have more fry. I'm not sure the other guppy would have survived anyway. It didn't look sick with anything but it wasn't so healthy ever since I got it. Poorly bred feeder guppy. Gobies are eating most any frozen food I give them and live saltwater pods a couple times a week. Even the smallest ones are a bit big for cyclops now and prefer glassworms. Very very messy fish. If they were any bigger they could compete against goldfish and large plecos for the messiest aquarium fish. Nitrates though are staying around 5ppm with weekly 25% water changes. I would guess the rock helps with some denitrifying.